Microbial impacts on shale gas exploitation

了解微生物群落将如何应对未来对地下的开采是一个关键的不确定性，这涉及许多科学和技术领域，包括提供清洁水、安全处置废物(例如二氧化碳和放射性废物)、收集地热能和水力压裂开采非常规气体。英国页岩气行业的发展被视为向英国提供可靠和安全的能源组合的关键。然而，水力压裂过程中和之后的微生物影响知之甚少，可能会对这项技术产生重大影响。例如，现有的或引入的微生物可能会产生有益的影响，提高天然气回收或帮助生物修复水力压裂过程中受到污染的大量水。它们还可能通过酸化反应和生物膜形成导致的液体/气体流动减少而产生负面影响。因此，最大限度地利用曼彻斯特和Rawwater的专业知识和基础设施(以及合作伙伴最近完成的NERC IAA项目)，这个多学科博士学位的目标是：1.完成对水力压裂系统微生物学的详细文献综述，为项目提供边界条件。确定可在现场条件下代谢的主要水力压裂添加剂，并确定它们支持的生物地球化学反应(重点是酸化反应和多糖生产)3.确定在合作伙伴实验室施加的现场条件下页岩内裂缝网络的微生物定植潜力4。量化微生物生长对孔隙度和流体传输的影响

Understanding how microbial communities will respond to future exploitation of the subsurface is a key uncertainty, which cuts across many areas of science and technology, including the provision of clean water, the safe disposal of waste materials (e.g. CO2 and radwaste), harvesting geothermal energy and fracking for nonconventional gases. The development of a shale gas industry in the UK is seen as crucial to delivering a reliable and secure energy mix to the UK. However, microbial impacts during and after fracking are very poorly understood and could have major implications for the technology. For example, existing or introduced microorganisms could have beneficial impacts, enhancing gas recovery or helping bioremediate large volumes of water contaminated during fracking. They could also have negative impacts through souring reactions and reduced fluid/gas flow caused by biofilm formation. Making maximal use of expertise and infrastructure at Manchester and Rawwater (and building on a recently complete NERC IAA project between the partners), the objectives for this multidisciplinary PhD are therefore to;1. Complete a detailed literature review of the microbiology of fracking systems, providing boundary conditions for theproject.2. Identify key fracking additives that can be metabolised under in situ conditions and determine the biogeochemicalreactions that they support (focusing on souring reactions and polysaccharide production)3. Determine the potential for microbial colonisation of fracture networks within shales under in situ conditions imposed inthe laboratories of the partners4. Quantify the impact of microbial growth on porosity and fluid transport